Flirts

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Exhibiting playful behavior that suggests affection while teasingly interacting with someone romantically
2. Engaging in light-hearted interactions that convey interest in another person while maintaining a playful demeanor
3. Acts in a teasing or playful way to show romantic or sexual interest in someone

Etymology: The verb "flirts" is the third-person singular of "flirt," and the noun's story is one of the more surprising in English: it began as a word for a quick movement and a giddy girl before it ever described romance. Its earliest senses in the 1500s were physical. "Flirt" meant to flick or jerk something, as with a fan or a fingertip, and the related "flurt" meant to mock or jeer. Those strands merged around 1553 with a noun for a giddy, frivolous girl, and the three gradually blended into the sense of teasing someone for amusement. The source pairs it with a family of similar-sounding Germanic words, such as Low German "flirt" for a light flick of the fingers and German "Flittchen" for a flirt or hussy, which suggests the word imitates a quick, light motion or a light-hearted chatter. Its exact origin remains unclear, though, and the Scots "flird," meaning a trifling or to jeer, is a related form that points to older roots.

Synonyms: teases, coquettes, flirts with

Antonyms: ignores, dismisses, snubs